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Why Do You Need Personalised Office Equipment?

Building your small business, Business Cards, Flyers, Marketing, , , ,

Have you been wondering how to make your office a little more homey and friendly feeling, help your business appear more professional to your employees and clients, or tie in your office supplies with your brand for a more cohesive aesthetic? Personalised office equipment could be exactly what you need!

Personalised office equipment could be anything from a custom-printed mug for the breakroom bearing your company’s logo, to a personalised notepad with your branding and contact details printed at the top.

There are so many benefits to investing in personalised office supplies and business stationery – and, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to be expensive! In terms of budget, there are many low-cost sources of office supplies and equipment, so why pay the extra?

In this article, we will discuss the benefits of personalised office equipment to your business and where you can order yours today.

Can Personalised Office Equipment Improve Your Business Branding?

Read any book on business marketing or search online and brand marketing comes out on top of the list of marketing essentials. Establishing and building a brand is one of the fundamental ways of promoting and growing a business.

Develop your own corporate brand image and try to emulate the success of major corporations, whose brand images are closely associated with their products and services.
With brand marketing, the company should use their chosen brand image in every aspect of the business, and that includes areas such as office equipment.

The consistent use of the brand’s image:
1) Immediately makes your brand familiar to customers and the public. For instance, McDonald’s golden arches logo stands out on the high street and is instantly recognisable, without even seeing the company name.
2) Reinforces your brand among your own employees. As a business owner, you encourage your employees to be brand ambassadors and using branded office products internally is great for achieving this.

If your employees associate themselves with the brand, they will believe in and promote the company’s brand image to customers. It is a very important aspect of business marketing – which is why you need personalised equipment in the office.

Some companies, perhaps focusing on their customers only, forget that their own employees are part of the brand too. It makes an enormous difference to business promotion and company morale when employees see themselves as part of the brand.
How can a company be true to its own brand image if they don’t promote that image both internally and externally?

What Kinds of Office Equipment Can Be Personalised?

The list covers many items that a company uses on a day-to-day basis, including pens, notepads, personalised mugs and letter openers.
Cheap, non-branded versions of all these products are indeed available from any office stationery supplier. Some business owners, despite brand promotion being a prime marketing goal, automatically choose the cheaper option rather than using personalised products in their own office.

But for long-term marketing, this is a false economy. Even if you don’t see an immediate benefit, don’t underestimate the long-term effect of personalised office equipment.

Where Can I Use Personalised Office Supplies?

Aside from being useful for internal brand promotion within the office, most of the above products work very well as customer promotional gifts and can be distributed:

1) During trade shows and sales conferences
2) As part of promotional events, such as “spend £20 and get a free mug” when ordering online
3) In your customer-facing business premises, if you have one

As an example, if your business is in the hospitality sector, such as a hotel, branded personalised office equipment such as stationery and pens are great to leave around the hotel for guest use. For instance, most hotels provide pens and stationery in their rooms.
Personalise the pens and notebooks to match the hotel’s name and style. Guests will take the pens from the hotel rooms and use in their everyday life. From a quality point of view, make sure that the pens work well as it is a poor recommendation for the brand if they run out of ink, or break, after a short period.
Look around your home or working environment to see how many promotional items from other brands you own – it may surprise you!

How to Personalise Office Equipment

So, when it comes to ordering personalised business stationery, office equipment and promotional products with your branding, what kind of products are out there – and how might you use them? Here are some examples.

Personalised Mugs

Mugs are probably the most versatile item, as they are highly visible and used every day. You may choose full-colour designs that cover one side or a design wrapped around the entire mug.

Choose a design that matches the company’s brand image, is nice to look at and reflects its products and services. If its intended use is as a promotional gift, make sure that the design includes contact information, and use a good quality mug. As with other items in this category, cups offer long-term brand exposure.
A well-designed personalised mug looks great on social media. Perhaps offer them as prizes during social media campaigns.

Design personalised mugs for your employees complete with their names, or perhaps have a designer draw a caricature of each person and give them out as Christmas presents. This would be a fun way to engage with your employees!

Notepads

Personalised notepads are great all-rounders. They can be used:
1) In the office
2) In the shop, hotel, or other business premises (to be used by staff and guests alike)
3) As promotional gifts for customers
4) As gifts for your employees to take home

One particular advantage of promotional notepads is their size, which allows for extensive creative design and personalisation. Being a paper-based product, they are easy to print on and are less expensive than some other items.
If your business is in the legal sector, design custom branded yellow legal notepads for internal and promotional use. These can be used both internally and for customer engagement.

If aimed at important customers, combine the notepad with a high-quality pen in an attractive leather-style folder. Alongside mugs, pens and notepads are some of the most popular promotional items, because they also offer long-term brand exposure. In marketing budget terms, that’s great value for money.

Pens

There is not a lot of space on a standard pen, so when adding text, include essential information only. If branding is important, custom manufacture the pens using brand matching colours and use a unique shape or design.
The custom manufactured pen option is more expensive and perhaps more appropriate if used for important customer promotions.

As mentioned above, pens are great promotional items for hotels, whose guests may continue to use them after leaving the hotel. If the company hosts a sales conference, give away branded pens and notepads for note-taking. The recipient will hopefully carry on using the items after the event.

For the ultimate high-tech promotional gift, use pens with built-in USB storage and a laser pointer. Before a sales conference or customer meeting, load up the pen with company sales brochures before distribution. These items are also highly popular with employees. Before giving them to the customer, make your sales pitch presentation using the laser pointer. It is a novelty gift, but a highly useful one.

Letter Openers

There are several types of promotional letter openers available, including plastic and sliver knife styles. However, think carefully before giving away a knife-style opener.
Aside from the danger aspect, something that resembles a blade may get blocked by airline security, which would cause issues for a customer flying back to their home city. Unless you have a pressing reason to choose the former, the plastic-style opener is likely the safer option and features several unique benefits.

Because of the plastic material, they come in multiple colours and shapes and are convenient for adding promotional printing, compared to the silver knife style, which is only suitable for engraving.

Rubber Stamps

Unless there is some novelty value in them, rubber stamps are not as useful as promotional gifts. However, they are very versatile when used by a business, in an office or retail environment.

For instance, a coffee shop implementing a loyalty card scheme may use a coffee bean shaped logo stamp, for stamping their loyalty cards, each time a customer buys a cup of coffee. Typically, stamps with a company logo and address are the most popular for office use.

But stamps are versatile and may use any shape or design that fits! Often, these are used in the office to mark received documents or invoices—‘Received’ and ‘Paid’—being typical examples.

Where Can I Buy Personalised Office Equipment?

Personalised office equipment is a great way to liven up your desk at work, and spread your brand awareness among your employees, clients, customers, and the general public.
At 123Print, we provide a wide range of affordable personalised office equipment for you to choose from. You can make your own personalised mug or notebook featuring your business logo and tagline with our easy-to-use design editor. Our printing technology is the best available on the market, so you’ll end up with an extremely high-quality product that you can be proud to associate with your brand.

Start with a blank design, or choose from a range of templates that have already been created for you. We can also print flyers, postcards, business cards and even custom printed envelopes for your business at extremely affordable prices.

When your order is complete, our shipping process ensures that we’ll dispatch your order within two working days! We also offer a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, so you have absolutely nothing to lose by giving us a try – and we’ll replace or refund your order if you’re ever unsatisfied with the results.

What are you waiting for? Visit our website now to get started and transform your business into a true force to be reckoned with!

Are Promotional Products Worth the Cost for Your Small Business?

Promotional Merchandise, , ,

Promotional products are everywhere these days – no doubt, you even own a few of your own, picked up from business fairs, markets, and promotional giveaways.
Whether it’s a tote bag, mug, fridge magnet or umbrella flaunting your company’s logo, promotional products are perfect for both attracting new customers, and keeping your business fresh in the minds of existing and past clients.

Not only are promotional products effective for larger companies, they’re also perfect for improving brand awareness and recognition for small and medium-sized businesses. But of course, you have to allocate funds within your advertising budget to order these products before you’ll start to see a return on your investment. And it’s also important that you know how to use such products effectively, so that they’ll make the biggest impact on your customer base and sales.

This guide will talk you through what exactly promotional products are, and give you some examples of how to use them. We’ll discuss how much promotional products cost, the benefits they may bring, and discuss whether the rewards are worth the investment.

What Are Promotional Products?

A promotional product is, in essence, any physical item that bears your company’s name, logo, or slogan. This could be a pen, a keyring, a flyer, a t-shirt – anything, really. It might be a one-use-only item, like a paper cup, or something that’s designed to last for years, such as a ceramic mug. The merchandise itself doesn’t have to bear any relation to the service or product that your company actually sells.

You might have seen businesses handing out promotional products at trade shows or conventions, giving them away as freebies to customers with their order, or using them as giveaway prizes.

Many people think that promotional products are something of a gimmick, or simply used as a token gesture of kindness – but that’s not the case. Multiple studies have shown that promotional products are an invaluable form of advertising that can help to draw in new customers, and retain the existing ones. They can even help to boost morale among employees of a company, and improve employee loyalty.

Examples of Promotional Products and How to Use Them

As you might have guessed, there are many different kinds of promotional products, available at a number of price points. For example:

• Flyers, leaflets and postcards are some of the cheapest promotional products. They’re so affordable that you can hand them out to passers-by, or hire a company to deliver them directly to homes as part of a local advertising campaign.

• Magnets and keyrings are a step up in terms of price, but also durability. They won’t be discarded as quickly, and are perfect handed out as freebies with an order, or at trade shows and business fairs.

• Drinkware such as glasses and mugs are designed to be used for many years, and make great gifts of thanks to longstanding clients and employees. While they may be on the costlier side, they’ll be used by your customers and employees regularly, increasing your exposure and brand awareness. One marketing study found drinkware to be one of the most influential kinds of promotional product – a famous example being the iconic Sports Direct mugs.

• Clothing, bags and umbrellas are some of the longest-lasting and most effective promotional wares. They make great corporate gifts – the big benefit being that they’ll be taken outside, and be seen by the public!
The more hardwearing and high-quality the product, the longer it will last, and therefore the more expensive it will be to buy. But though these products may be pricier, they have the most usability and the longest lifespan – so they also have the most potential to help grow your business.

What Are the Benefits of Using Promotional Products?

The use of promotional products, gifts and merchandise will result in many tangible benefits for your business. Multiple marketing studies have shown that promotional products can:

• Increase brand awareness and identification. Your name and logo will be more easily recognised and remembered.

• Help improve brand image – change the way that people feel about your company. A study by the Advertising Specialties Institute found that people view companies who give them promotional items in an overwhelmingly positive light.

• Increase your company’s sales. A customer is more likely to do business with a company if they own their merchandise, rather than a competitor who sells a similar product or service.

• Increase employee morale, if your promotional products are given away to employees as a thank-you for their hard work.

• Keep your business fresh in the minds of past customers. A potential customer will look at a branded mug and see your logo every single time they drink from it. This is much more effective than, say, passing a billboard.

Don’t forget that your promotional products won’t just have an effect on those who own them, but also anyone who sees the product being used. For example, if someone is carrying around a tote bag bearing your company’s name, this might be seen by anyone who passes them in the street.

Will My Customers Actually Use or Keep the Product?

In short – yes. Obviously, not every (potential) customer will be interested in keeping a branded product in their home; they may have no use for it, or no room to store it. But studies show that the average consumer will keep a promotional product for an average of 7 months.

For more durable and practical products, such as umbrellas, this average increases to 14 months. All this time, not only will your potential customer be looking at your logo every time they use the product – but they’ll also be seen using it, either inside or outside the home.

Furthermore, over 50% of people who own a promotional product will give it away to someone else when they’re finished with it, rather than throwing it in the bin. This will further spread brand awareness!

To increase the likelihood that your customers will actually use your promotional products, take into account your target market. Try to offer the kinds of products that your particular audience will be most likely to use. For example, if your company is popular with the over-70s, USB drives and tech gadgets may not be a sensible choice – but things and mugs and umbrellas might be perfect.

How Much Do Promotional Products Cost?

The cost of any promotional product will vary depending, of course, on what kind of product it is. For example, our magnets start at £15.95 for a pack of 20 small magnets – that’s less than 80p each.

Our personalised mugs vary in price depending on whether you want a single image or a wraparound-style image, and how many mugs you order. The more you order, the more you’ll save – a pack of 200 single image mugs comes to just £4.26 per mug.

In general, products which cost more to purchase are:
• Larger
• Higher quality
• More durable
• Reusable
• Multi-purpose
• Designed to be used for a long period of time (months or years)

Though a personalised coffee mug might be more expensive than a branded paper cup, for example, it will have a more lasting impression on the owner (whether that’s a customer or an employee), and will therefore generate more sales and interest in your company.

How Do I Know I’m Getting a Good Return on Investment?

Promotional products offer a greater return on investment than traditional types of advertising (such as newspaper ads and billboards). In terms of cost per impression (CPI), promotional merchandise is the most cost-effective form of advertising, at around 0.5p per impression.

A 2014 study by the British Promotional Merchandise Association also found that:

• 96% of marketers who had tried promotional products thought they were worth the money, in terms of increasing brand awareness
• 73% of the public said that they would purchase from a company that had given them a promotional gift

Data also shows that many customers will also remember the brand on their promotional product for many years after they have thrown or given the item away.
In terms of your own business, the most direct way to monitor whether you’re getting a return on your investment is to closely monitor your sales, website views, searches and clicks, both before and after you roll out your new promotional merchandise.

How Do I Factor Promotional Products into My Advertising Budget?

As excited you may be at the prospect of rolling out your new promotional merchandise to your employees and customers, don’t go overboard. Make sure to factor in your spend on promotional products into your current advertising budget, to avoid overspending.
You may need to make some reductions in other methods of advertising, such as targeted online ads and promoted Facebook posts, in order to make room for your new ad specialties.
Think carefully about which promotional products you’ll need over the next 12 months when you begin your annual advertising budget. Start with products at a lower price point if you’re unsure.
Plan for a year’s worth of upcoming events, such as new product rollouts and seasonal sales. And be aware that it might take a while before you notice any additional revenue from your new products – but it will be worth it in the end.
Where Can I Order Personalised Promotional Products?

At 123Print, we offer a range of personalised promotional products including:
• Flyers
• Postcards
• Keyrings
• Magnets
• Mugs
• Stationery such as notepads, letterheads and rubber stamps

 

All of our products are fully customisable. You can select one of our templates to edit as you please, or create your own design entirely from scratch using our editor. Upload your own artwork (such as your company’s logo) for free, and choose a colour scheme and font that matches your business’s aesthetic.

You can order your promotional products in quantities of up to 2,000, and the more you order, the more you’ll save. With fast shipping, competitive prices and a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you’ve got nothing to lose!

Why We Love Promotional Merchandise (And You Should, Too!)

Promotional Merchandise, , ,

promotional mugs

It may be hard to believe but, with roots dating as far back as the 18th century, promotional merchandise has a magnificent and revolutionary history.

From one of its earliest credited uses paving the way for the presidential election of George Washington; to its contribution in building some of the world’s brand behemoths; it’d be accurate to say that promotional merchandise has a successful history.

Yet, even with so many success stories it is astonishing that with every year that goes by, more and more marketers are eliminating the promotional product from their marketing plans.

Did you know? Only 49% of Marketers think about using promotional merchandise.

This comes as no surprise however, as, with the growth of online marketing, ecommerce and an emergent number of articles singing the praises of the latest social network; it’s easy for promotional merchandise to be eradicated with other, seemingly more lucrative marketing initiatives taking its place.

Did you know? 21.8% of marketing spends in 2013 were spent online.

Yet, with every day that goes by the online marketplace is becoming a fierce place for small businesses to operate in.

In 2014 businesses are predicted to increase online ad spend by 3.8%. With the news that Facebook is continuing to sever the rope that connects you and your customers, to the ever irritating Google algorithm changes and the both confusing and expensive AdWords, online marketing is fast becoming a landscape where only the power of money talks. Put simply, small businesses just cannot compete.

Nonetheless, for small businesses, the outlook doesn’t have to be so bleak; perhaps it is time you look back to the remarkable results of promotional merchandise. Sure it’s still going to be important to build a presence online, but with an unstable online climate and with 44% of people finding marketing online ‘annoying’, there is perhaps an opportunity in the proven traditional promotional products.

A report from the BMPA in 2011 shows its support of this statement in its key findings:


Key findings:

• Promotional merchandise can deliver a higher or equal ROI than most forms of advertising

• 66% of respondents said they could remember the brand on the promotional product they received during the last year

• 79% said they were likely to do business with the company in the future

• 8 out of 10 (84 per cent) respondents said that a branded promotional gift increases brand awareness

• Over three quarters (87 per cent) of recipients said they kept a promotional gift for longer than 12 months

• Over half (56 per cent) of respondents said their opinion of the brand/company was more favourable after receiving the promotional product

We’re not arguing that you should drop online marketing altogether, but with the average ad spend online rising, the agony of fighting for customer attention and the price of promotional merchandise dropping, maybe it’s time you look back into past successes and invest in a trusted product that has unique opportunities for the future.

Did you know? Reddit, one of the most popular social news and entertainment sites, seeing 100 Million Unique visitors per month, only spent $500 on marketing, spending all $500 buying promotional stickers!